Balanced scoring attack providing plenty of Spurs weapons

San Antonio used to be known as the home of “The Big Three” back when Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan provided the bulk of the offense for the team.

That’s changed this season in the development of an offense that Gregg Popovich calls the most balanced he’s had in San Antonio.

Duncan, Parker and Ginobili still average 50.6 points per game as three of the four leading San Antonio scorers. But the Spurs also have Richard Jefferson and George Hill as players with double-figure scoring averages. Matt Bonner, DeJuan Blair and James Anderson all average at least seven points a game. Gary Neal is at 6.5 points per game, Antonio McDyes at 5.0 and Tiago Splitter at 4.8.

“Having a balanced scoring situation makes it easier for everybody and makes it tougher for an opponent to key on,” Popovich said. “To have as many people scoring as we have has helped keep (The Big Three) from shouldering the load every night. Hopefully we can continue that to some degree.”

The scoring firepower coming from deep on the bench is something that has helped the Spurs average 107 points a game to rank third in the league. It’s the best scoring average for San Antonio in Popovich’s coaching tenure.

“We’ve never had it this balanced,” Popovich said. “We’ve got guys coming off the bench contributing consistently and not just once in awhile. It’s something we’ve started to count on. I’m sure there will be nights when it won’t be there, just like every team. But for the most part we’ve been able to be pretty balanced.”